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S k m A B R. A h

(No Model!) APPARATUS FOR FORGING AND FINISHING CIRCULAR ARTICLES.

Patented May 5, 1891.

Invent/or 1m ass-es.

(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2.

No. 451,470. Patented May 5,1891.

FIG'A.

FIG.3.

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3 Sheets-Sheet 3.

(No Model.)

0. FAIRBAI-RN. APPARATUS FOR FORGING AND FINISHING CIRCULAR ARTICLES.

,4'70. Patented May 5, 1891.

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4 NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES FAIRBAIRN, OF SALE, ENGLAND.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 451,470, dated May 5, 1891. Application filed November 3, 1890. Serial No. 370.172. (No model.) Patented in England May 7, 1890, No. 7,083.

To aZZ whom it may concern..-

Be it known that I, CHARLES FAIRBAIRN, a citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and a resident of Sale, in the county of Chester, England, have invented certain newand useful Improvements in Apparatus for Forging and Finishing lircular Articles, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to apparatus employed for forging and for finishing balls, projectiles, and other articles having circular sections and in which the form of the article is produced by rolling the metal of which they are made between two disks. According to these improvements I employ either for forging or for finishing two disks of equal or of unequal diameter, one or each of which has formed in its working-surface a spiral groove or spiral grooves from the periphery or rim toward the center. In operation the spiral groove or spiral grooves give -form to.

the article or finish it, as the case may be, by the rotation of the disk or disks.

I will describe myinvention with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are hereinafter referred to.

Similar parts in each of the figures are denoted by similar letters of reference.

Figures 1 and 2 are respectivelya side and an end elevation of a machine which may be employed either for forging or for finishing. Figs. 3 and 4 are respectively side and front elevations of a forging and finishing machine. Fig. 5 is a vertical section through a pair of forging or finishing disks. Fig. 6 is a plan of the disks shown in Fig. 5. Fig. 7 is a vertical section through a pair of forging or finishing disks. Fig. 8 is a plan of the disks shown in Fig. 7. Fig. 9 is a vertical section through a pair of forging and a pair of finishing disks, the two pairs of disks being secured upon and connected by a hollow shaft. Fi 10 is a plan of a disk having two spiral grooves shaped for forging and finishing projectiles and similar articles with conoidal points. Fi 11 is a transverse section of Fig. 10.

A is the upper disk, and a is the lower disk, in each pair. They are arranged with their contiguous or working faces in parallel planes, as shown in Fig. 7, in a horizontal and an inclined plane, respectively, as shown in Figs. 5 and 9, or in two planes at a small angle to each other.

One of the disks of each pair is provided with an opening or openings at or near the center, through which blanks or forgings may be fed or through which the forgings or finished articles may escape. hen there is only one spiral, there is only one such opening, as at B, Figs. 5 and '7, and at B b, Fig. 9. WVhen there are two or more spirals, there is one opening at the inner end of each spiral, as in Fig. 10; Openings for feeding blanks or forgings to the disks are formed through the upper disk. Those for the escape of the forgings or articles finished by the disksare formed through the lower disk.

If the disks are to be fed from the rims, there is formed outside the spiral groove of each disk a plane self-feeding rim 0, as shown in the drawings, Figs. 8 and 10. The disks may be of equal or of unequal diamete rs,but if they are of unequal diameters they must be arranged so that when the outer ends E of the grooves pass each other during the rotation of the disks they will be in the same vertical plane. The disks may be coaxial or eccentric. If they are coaxial, they may either be rotated in opposite directions at different velocities or one of them may be rotated and the other stationary, and they are fed with blanks or with forgings through central openings in the upper disk bypreference, although they may be fed from the rim. These disks are not adapted to out or shear the blanks for the forgings from a bar or rod. It is preferred to arrange the disks eccentric to each other, as shown in Figs. 1 to 6, inclusive, in which case the disks should be rotated in opposite directions at equal velocities, as indicated by the arrows in Fig. 6. It is preferred, also, to arrange them so that their axes are at a small angle to each other, as shown in Figs. 1, 2, 3,

4:, 5, 6, and 9,as this arrangement enables any scale or dust to be blown away or removed. It also compels the articles to advance from the feeding-rim to the center or from the center to the rim in a straight line, as shown in Figs. 5 and S, which line is in theline of nearest approach of the disks. The outer edge of this line is the feeding-point F in the forging-disks, and it is arranged that the outer ends of the grooves 1*) shall cross each other at this point during the rotation of the disks, so that; they may shear or cut off a blank from the end of a heated bar f, Figs. 5, 0, 7, and 9, thrust 5 between the feeding-rims. The most suitable amount of eccentricity is from three to four diameters of the article, but the eccentricity should be adjustable in order that the disks may be moved relatively into the best position and in order, also, that the amount of eccentricity may be varied on a change being made in the size of the disks. If the disks are to be employed for finishing only, I prefer to employ disks of differcut diameters, as hereinbefore described, as

by these a rubbing or polishing action is induced in addition to the rollingmotion. The feeding-rims may be omitted and the articles be fed through the center \Vhen the disks are arranged for the articles to be fed through the upper disk, I may construct a groove, central cone, or way, in the center of thelower disk below the opening in the upperdisk, in such a manner as to guide the articles into the spiral channel between the disks. The spiral groove or grooves in each disk are shaped in cross-section to one half of the section of the article to be forged or finished. Thus, if balls have to be produced the grooves will be semicircular. lVhen the disks are rotated at equal speeds in opposite directions, (which is the preferred arrangement) the spirals in each disk are formed in the same directionthat is to say, they are both right-handed, or both lefthanded, when viewed face up\\'ard,and both have a similar pitch and cross-section in the grooves. If they are inclined to each other I produce the rolling contact from the rim to the center by forming one or both disks to a very flattened cone, as shown in Fig. 5, where the upper disk is so coned. In the case of eccentric disks inclined to each other, as shown in Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 9, there is only one feeding-point F at the rims and the machine is fed once per revolution for each spiral. In the case of the parallel disks, Fig. 7, the machine may be fed with a bar at the rims, or, if concentric with blanks or forgings, from the center, twice per revolution for each spiral. In some cases-as, for example, for forging or for finishing cylindrical articles and conesit is obvious that the spiral groove may be formed wholly in one of the disks, the other disk beingpcrfeetly plain; but itis preferred in all cases to make the spiral in each disk as hcreinbefore described.

In constructing the disks I prefer to form the spiral grooves on a steel facing which is secured to a disk keyed upon or forged with the shaft, as shown in Figs. 5, 6, and 9.

I do not confine myself to any particular form of construction of machine in which the disks maybe employed for the purpose of this invention, as it is obvious that a great variety of designs and combinations may be produced; but I have illustrated by Figs. 1 to of the open disk.

4-, inclusive, two forms of machines which will be found to meet most requirements.

Figs 1 and 2 represent a machine which may be arranged either for forging or for finishiug, as may be desired. In this machine the lower disk a is firmly keyed or forged upon the hollow shaft D, and the upper disk -A is similarly secured or formed upon the shaft G, which is slightly inclined to and eccentric with the shaft D, Figs. 5 and 6. The opening in the lower disk communicates with the interior of the hollow shaft D, the lower end of which opens into a box or receptacle ll, formed in the base of the machine. The disks are driven in contrary directions at equal speeds from the fast pulley I through the bevel'gearing J and the wheels K 7n and L l. The machine is fed from the front. If the machine is desired to be fed from the center, the upper shaft G will be hollow and the lower one solid, and blanks or forgings will be fed through the upper shaft and delivered from the rims of the disks.

The machine represented by Figs. 3 and t is intended for simultiuieously forging and finishing, the forging being effected by means of the upper pair of disks and the finishing by the lower pair. The disks are arranged eccentric and at angles to each other, as before described with reference to Figs. 1 and 2. The lower disk of the upper pair and the upper disk of the lower pair are respectively secured to or formed upon the opposite ends of a hollow shattrl, as separately shown in de tail in Fig. 9. These two disks have central openings communicating with the interior of the hollow shaft, so that articles which have been forged in the upper pair will descend through the shaft to the lower pair, between which they are received and rolled outward to the rims, whence they fall into any suitable receiver. The disks are driven from the fast pulley I through the bevel-wheels J of which the lower onej is fixed upon the shaft M and the upper one J upon a sleeve, upon which the wheel K is also fixed. On the shaft M there are fixed the wheels K and 7:, of which K gears with the wheclL on the shaft of the upperdisk of the upper pair, and the wheel 7.: with the wheel Z on the shaft of the lower disk of the lower pair. The wheel K gears with the wheel I. on the hollow shaft (Z, upon which the lower disk of the upper pair and the upper disk of the lower pair are formed or secu red. The wheels K, K, and 71) are equal, and K is rotated in one direction by the wheel J, while K and 7.: are rotated in the opposite direction by the wheelj at equal rates of speed. The wheels L, L, and Zare also equal, and it follows that the disks secured to the hollow shaft are rotated in one direction, while the other disks are rotated at the same speed in the opposite direction. It follows, also, that all the spirals being in the same direction, the upper disks will feed from the rim iiiward to the center and the lower disks from the center outward to the rim. The articles are forged between the upper pair of disks and fall through the hollow shaft into the center of the lower pair of disks, whence they are traversed by the rotation of the grooves to the rim, being finished during their passage. It will be understood that the grooves in the forging-disks are made slightly larger than those in the finishing-disks.

Elongated projectiles and similar articles are forged and finished at one operation by a single pair of disks. If they are desired to be rifled or fluted, they are forged from bars or blanks which have been previously rifled or fluted, and the action of the disks will be limited to the formation of the conoidal points or other circular parts. With the disks arranged as represented in Figs. 1 and 3-that is to say, eccentric and inclined-the articles are cut off from a suitable bar of metal by the shearing and rolling action of the two ends E of the spiral grooves in the opposed disks, which pass each other at every revolution at the feeding-point, which is perpendicular to a line joining the centers of the disks, Fig. 6. The peculiar rolling action of the disks draws in the bar between the rims toward the center between each severance of the bar. If the bars require heating, as is generally the case, and they are of comparatively large diameter, they may be heated in any suitable furnace; but in the case of bars of small diameter it is advisable to employ a special heating apparatus close to the rims. This may conveniently consist of a bar gasburner arranged in a line under the bar and close to the rims of the disks.

In all other cases than that last described with referenceto Figs. 1 and 3 it will be most convenient to feed the disks with blanks or forgings through the center of the upper disks, as even when the feeding could be effected from the rims it would be very difficult to time the feeding properly.

In English Patent No. 1,804 of 1887, gran ted conjointly to Matthew Wells and myself, is shown an apparatus for forging circular articles similar in general plan to my present apparatus. In said patent is shown one of the disks as provided with straight grooves extending from the periphery toward the center and at an inclination to the radii. My present invention differs therefrom in the respects hereinbefore described and now about to be pointed out in the appended claims, this difference consisting in the difference in form of the grooves in the disks and also in providing a central opening or openings in one or more of the disks.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is 1. In a machine for forging or for finishing balls, projectiles, and other malleable articles having circular cross-sections, a pair of disks having a spiral groove or spiral grooves formed upon their contiguous faces, the cross-section of each of the grooves corresponding to onehalf the section of the article to be forged or finished, and one of the disks having a cen' tral opening or openings for the admission of the article fed thereto or for the escape of the forged or finished article, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2. In a machine for forging or for finishing cylindrical, conical, and similar malleable articles, a pair of contiguous disks, one of which has a-spiral groove or spiral grooves formed upon its face, and one of which also has an opening or openings near its center for the admission of the forged articles fed thereto or for the escape of the forged or finished articles, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

8. In a machine for forging or for finishing balls, projectiles, and other malleable articles having circular cross-sections, the combination and arrangement, with a pair of disks having a spiral groove or spiral grooves in their contiguous faces and an opening or openings in the central part of the lower disk, of a hollow shaft having its hollow part in communication with the opening or openings in the lower disk, and suitable gearing for rotating one of the disks only or for rotating both of the disks in opposite directions, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

4. In a machine for forging and for finishing balls, projectiles, and other malleable articles having circular transverse sections, the combination and arrangement, with two pairs of disks having a spiral groove or spiral grooves in their contiguous faces and a central opening or central openings in the lower disk of the upper pair and the upper disk of the lower pair, of a hollow shaft having the lower disk of the upper pair and the upper disk of the lower pair secured thereon, and having also its hollow part in communication with the openings in the respective disks, and' suitable gearing for rotating the two disks fixed upon the hollow shaft in one direction and the other two disks in the opposite direction at an equal speed, substantially as hereinbefore described, and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have signed my name, in presence of two witnesses, this 15th day of October, 1890.

CHARLES FAIRBAIRN. lVitnesses:

Gno. W. Rown, GEO. IIEYs. 

